Definition of Corporate Culture
Are you looking for a clear definition of corporate culture? You
have come to the right place!
I have developed a definition of corporate culture after nearly
20 years of working with organizations and viewing them from the
perspective of a cultural anthropologist as well as a strategy
consultant with an MBA in finance.
The easiest way to think of corporate culture is that it is an
energy field that determines how people think, act, and view the
world around them. I often compare culture to electricity.
Culture is powerful and invisible and its effects are far
reaching. Culture is an energy force that becomes woven through
the thinking, behavior, and identity of those within the group.
Corporate culture is created naturally and automatically. Every
time people come together with a shared purpose, culture is
created. This group of people could be a family, neighborhood,
project team, or company. Culture is automatically created out
of the combined thoughts, energies, and attitudes of the people
in the group.
I have worked with entrepreneurs and venture capitalists
involved in the start-up of technology companies. They want to
work on the corporate culture once the company is profitable or
"in the black". It is much more difficult to change the
corporate culture once it has emerged than to proactively create
the corporate culture they want from the start.
The corporate culture energy field determines a company's dress
code, work environment, work hours, rules for getting ahead and
getting promoted, how the business world is viewed, what is
valued, who is valued, and much more.
Every company or organizations has numerous corporate cultures.
For example, the marketing department and the engineering
department may have very different corporate cultures which are
both influenced by the overall organizational corporate culture.
Many times these two sub-cultures clash.
Culture shows up in both visible and invisible ways. Some
expressions of corporate culture are easy to observe. You can
see the
dress code, work environment, perks, and titles in a
company. This is the surface layer of culture. These are only
some of the visible manifestations of a culture.
Surface Layer of Corporate Culture: Visible Expressions �Dress
Code � Work Environment � Benefits � Perks � Conversations �
Work/Life Balance � Titles & Job Descriptions � Organizational
Structure � Relationships
The far more powerful aspects of corporate culture are
invisible. The cultural core is composed of the beliefs, values,
standards, paradigms, worldviews, moods, internal conversations,
and private conversations of the people that are part of the
group. This is the foundation for all actions and decisions
within a team, department, or organization.
Core Layer of Corporate Culture: Invisible Manifestations �
Values � Private Conversations (with self or confidants) �
Invisible Rules � Attitudes � Beliefs � Worldviews � Moods and
Emotions � Unconscious Interpretations � Standards � Paradigms �
Assumptions
Business leaders often assume that their company's vision,
values, and strategic priorities are synonymous with their
company's culture. Unfortunately, too often, the vision, values,
and strategic priorities may only be words hanging on a plaque
on the wall.
Corporate culture is actually the container for the vision,
mission and values. It is not synonymous with them. In a
thriving profitable company, employees will embody the values,
vision, and strategic priorities of their company.
What creates this embodiment (or lack of embodiment) is the
corporate culture energy field that permeates the employees'
psyches, bodies, conversations, and actions. Companies need a
good definition of corporate culture before they can begin to
understand how to change the corporate culture.
About the author:
Find out how to shift your corporate culture to increase profits
and retain employees. Visit http://www.culturebuilders.
com for free articles and white papers on corporate culture.
Written by: Debra Thorsen
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